Last Silverhill killing co-defendant sentenced after plea deal in Baldwin County court

Amen Wellock, 19, of Robertsdale pleaded to guilty to second-degree conspiracy to commit arson in the 2009 death of Robert Aitcheson of Silverhill.

BAY MINETTE, Alabama -- The fifth and final co-defendant in the 2009 killing of a Silverhill man was sentenced Tuesday in Baldwin County Circuit Court after entering a plea bargain.

Amen Wellock, 19, of Robertsdale pleaded guilty to second-degree conspiracy to commit arson in the death of Robert Aitcheson.

Baldwin Circuit Judge Robert Wilters handed down a 10-year split sentence with Wellock ordered to serve 36 months, followed by five years of supervised probation. He will receive credit for jail time served. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped charges of capital murder-arson and capital murder-robbery and another conspiracy charge.

“There was no evidence that Mr. Wellock was present during or participated in the actual killing of Robert Aitcheson,” District Attorney Hallie Dixon wrote in an email. Therefore, her office, with the agreement of police and the victim’s family, “determined justice would not be served by the least culpable defendant being convicted of the most serious offense,” she said.

In a news release issued after the sentencing, defense attorney D. Parker Sweet said the plea agreement was in his client’s best interest and would spare the victim’s family the ordeal of a trial.

Sweet said his client has been in jail for nearly 27 months, and estimated that when the credit is applied, Wellock could leave prison in early February.

Wellock was one of five Baldwin County youths who faced capital murder charges in connection with the January 2009 death of 51-year-old Robert Aitcheson, who was stabbed to death and his trailer burned.

Last year, the victim’s son, Ian Aitcheson, 18, was convicted of murder and first-degree arson in the death of his father and received a life sentence for each count, to run consecutively.

Later last year, Danny Weaver, 21, received consecutive life terms after pleading guilty to murder and first-degree arson.

Amber Darlene Jerkins, 20 pleaded guilty to first-degree arson and was sentenced to 15 years. Keishjuan Betts, 21, received a 30-year sentence after pleading guilty to murder.

Sweet denied that the youths comprised a gang called “the Skittles of Rob-Town,” as some reports previously stated.

“Admittedly, these kids called themselves a gang and said they were, at least at some point, members of the Folk Nation, supposedly,” he said. But he disputed whether they were truly a gang.